Since the discovery of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), time, money, and efforts have been expended to exploit their properties towards developing new devices and improving current technologies. Due to their unique physical structures, including one dimensionality, high surface area, high aspect ratio, and exceptional electronic, mechanical and thermal properties, CNTs have shown potential for a number of different applications
Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) has been used to synthesize vertically aligned CNT (VACNT) arrays at lower temperatures. However, many PECVD techniques are complex and expensive and limited to research laboratory scale which make them unsuitable for the large-scale production. There is also the possibility of having a weak attachment of catalyst nanoparticles to the substrate, which helps cause degradation of VACNT composites over time. Hence, for the applications like field emission, electrodes and sensors, it is desirable to grow VACNTs directly on a conducting catalytic substrate without addition of an external catalyst layer.